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June 07, 2004

A-Kon 15 Anime Convention

This guy wasn't there...but I wish he had been. Pretty cool costume.

Well, I just returned from our annual weekend excursion to the Project: A-Kon Anime Convention in Dallas, Texas. This year marks the ninth consecutive year I have attended. As usual, I hardly participated in any actual convention events. I consider myself more of a convention tourist. I take photos of the freakish natives and crowd into elevators filled with all types of unwashed nerd BO.

Here are some of the most common aspects of the con-going archetype I have noted in my years of observation:

* They cannot resist the urge to speak randomly to complete strangers about things the strangers know nothing of and care nothing about.

* If given a small amount of authority by the convention organizers, they thrive on this power and become an incredibly annoying sort of Nerd Gestapo.

* The bigger the girl, the smaller the costume.

I'll stop there and save the rest for my eventual book about the con-freak phenomenon.

You might be wondering, if I'm so turned off by these people, why do I go to anime conventions? My wife and I go to anime conventions to buy cool stuff and to learn about new anime. Yes, we do love Japanese cartoons, but we still manage to function as relatively normal human beings. It's also just a good excuse to spend a weekend in the Dallas area each summer.

Favorite Books

Ravi Zacharias: Can Man Live Without God?An amazing book that makes the case for God not by citing the Bible or great theologians, but by analyzing the philosophies of famous atheists and showing their flaws.

C. S. Lewis: Mere ChristianityC.S. Lewis was an atheist for much of his life. Appropriately, this book makes the case for the existance of God first and Christianity second with carefully outlined and surprisingly simple reasoning. I consider this required reading for anyone searching for meaning.

C. S. Lewis: Space TrilogyReligious Sci-Fi Fantasy: A very tiny genre. In "Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra", and "That Hiddeous Strength", C.S. Lewis manages to tackle difficult theological questions as we follow Dr. Ransom in his adventures on Mars, Venus, and back on Earth. My favorite science fiction series by far.